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Amazon has created a real-time bidding ad exchange, according to Adweek, putting it in a head-to-head battle with Facebook and Google for so called retargeting dollars.

Here’s how it will work: If you’re browsing on Amazon but decide not to buy that DVD of “Star Wars,” Amazon will drop a tracking cookie on your browser. When you go elsewhere in Amazon’s exchange network — which includes Amazon, IMDb, DPReview, and various ad exchanges and publishers that Amazon has a relationship with — you might see an ad pop up offering you another chance to buy “Star Wars.”

The advantage Amazon will have, however, is that it can use its vast trove of shopping data to target users with ads based on their purchase histories. Neither Facebook nor Google (which also does RTB retargeting via DoubleClick) can do that. Adweek says:

The self-serve RTB platform would hypothetically function similarly to Facebook’s Ads Manager in terms of how buyers could target their ads. Sources said Amazon is extremely protective of its data and wary of providing outside access, so like Facebook, Amazon’s platform would enable buyers to create targeting segments such as “men; aged 25-34; in Califo! rnia; in terested in high-definition TVs; who have purchased how-to books and home improvement tools.” But Amazon is not about to hand over its customer’s names or individual buying histories.

The three giants — Amazon, Facebook and Google — now face off in RTB like this:

Amazon: Owns the best database of actual shopping history and purchases. This type of data is like gold for advertisers. Clients have long awaited the day when “the sleeping giant,” as it is known in the ad biz, finally wakes up to advertisers. That day has dawned, it seems.

Facebook: Owns the best database of personal information about consumers. 1 billion users strong, with all their interests and friends, it’s terrifically useful stuff for marketers.

Google: Has traditionally dominated the “purchase intent” sector of the category. When people search for “Star Wars DVD” online, that’s a pretty good indicator they want to buy said movie. Google has been serving ads (and retargeting ads) against such requests for years. But its data on shoppers and their histories has never been as good as Amazon’s or Facebook’s.

Smartphone owners have learned to cope with the extra power drain in-app advertising can cause, but accidentally launching a web browser? That’s a frustration that lasts forever. Google’s hoping to mitigate the pitfalls of clumsy thumbs, however, by introducing two-step click-through for mobile ads. Text banners served through AdMob will now display a humble blue arrow on their starboard side — clicking here takes the reader directly to the advertiser’s preferred destination; touching anywhere else expands widens the blue square to coax users into giving the ad a confirmation click, just in case they fumbled the advertisement by mistake. The team’s preliminary tests show that confirmed ad clicks sport a notably higher conversion rate, indicating that folks who clicked through the ad actually meant to. Google says solving what it calls the “fat finger problem” will be beneficial to the ecosystem as a whole. We prefer to think of our fingers as grand.

The company started the quirky campaign in March of this year with a commercial that suggested IE was the browser you used only to download another, better browser. That spot, from CP+B, featured a guy ignoring his up-for-it girlfriend while he tried to uninstall Explorer from this PC. (The joke, for non-nerds, is that you cannot uninstall Explorer from a Windows machine.)

In the new commercial, a basement dwelling geek — signified by a lava lamp, an ET doll, double screen setup, etc. — attempts to troll Microsoft by repeatedly leaving the message “IE SUCKS” on comment boards and Twitter.

The company responds by extolling IE10’s virtues, including “IE adopts an island of kittens and donates them to children everywhere!!!” Check it out:

Many think HTML5, a new technology that allows developers to build rich web-based apps that run on any device via a standard web browser, will save the mobile web.

However, in August, Facebook sent shock waves through the HTML5 world when it released the latest update of its iOS app. In this update, Facebook abandoned its HTML5-heavy app for one built from scratch with Apple’s iOS SDK.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we explain why Facebook decided to abandon HTML5 for the time being, analyze the state of HTML5 and native apps, and detail why it may take even longer for HTML5 to win out than previously thought.

But, the promise of HTML5 remains:Zuckerberg had this to say about HTML5: “It’s not that HTML5 is bad. I’m actually, long-term, really excited about it” His regret was not that Facebook spent two years dithering on HTML5, but that it spent two years on HTML5 when it wasn’t ready, or, as he put it, “it just wasn’t there.”

The mobile Web browser market is a mess. Most platforms have a default Web browser installed, often a customize one, and unlike desktop PCs, it’s hard to change that browser.

So platform market share gives you a good proxy for mobile browser market share. But according to StatCounter, no mobile platform commands more than 25 percent of the global market.

The platform data is not as clean as one might like for understanding the mobile-browser landscape. For example, you should combine iPhone and iPod Touch data to get an idea of Apple’s mobile Safari market share. And some Android smartphones have a custom Android Web browser, while newer ones have GoogleChrome preinstalled. Nokia is likewise a mess: It used to support Opera, it then featured its own Nokia Web browser for the Symbian smartphone operating system, and its newest Windows phones have mobile Internet Explorer.

Nonetheless, it is clear that the market is fragmented across platforms. As we’ve discussed before, this is a big problem for the development of HTML5 because these browsers do not supports a consistent feature set. As long as mo! bile bro wsers remain fragmented and no standards for HTML5 are ratified, native apps will still be king.

Chrome accounted for 33.8% of the global browser market in July, an increase of more than ten percentage points from the year before, according to the latest data from StatCounter. Internet Explorer, the second most popular browser, had 32% of the market.

The fact that Amazon’s Instant Video service—which, while no Netflix, is starting to catch up—is just thrown in as an add-on to the already wonderful Amazon Prime is a little astonishing, when you think about it. And now, with iPad compatibility that some of us thought would never get here, it’s gotten dangerously close to being the best streaming deal around.

There are still problems with Instant Video; the selection struggles at times, and even if it were quality it’s a nightmare to navigate. But that’s just the Prime streaming side. Amazon’s selection of movies and TV shows for purchase matches anyone’s, and its prices are always competitive with—and very often lower than—Apple’s.

A quick run-through of both a movie that I own through Instant Video and one that I streamed through my Prime membership showed that the service works quickly, smoothly, and crisply. You can also download movies that you own to your device for offline viewing. It’s a little bit magical.

The only additional downside is that because of Apple takes 30% of any in-app purchase, you can’t buy movies directly through the Instant Video iPad app. Instead, you’ll have to head to Amazon in a browser, complete your purchase, then head back to your app. Which is silly! But worth the inconvenience, especially given Amazon’s daily video sales.

If you’re a Prime member, you need to download this app immediately. If you’re not Prime but are tired of paying iTunes prices, you need to download this app immediately. If you’re a Fringe or West Wing fan—both Amazon Prime Instant Video exclusives—you need to sign up for Prime. And then download this app immediately. [iTunes via 9to5Mac]

Facebook users are increasingly abandoning the desktop version of the social network in favor of the mobile version, the company revealed in its latest 10-Q filing.

About 102 million users accessed Facebook solely through mobile devices in June, a whopping 23% increase from the number who did so in March, according to a telling stat in the 10-Q filing first spotted by TechCrunch.

To put that in perspective, this means nearly a fifth of Facebook’s 543 million monthly active users now access the social network exclusively through mobile apps or a mobile browser.

This proves yet again that mobile is Facebook’s future, and it only increases the urgency for the company to figure out its mobile advertising strategy. Facebook’s mobile ads do have a click-through rate that is reportedly as much as 15 times greater than on the desktop, but as TechCrunch points out, Facebook can only place a small fraction of the ads on the mobile page that it does on the desktop page.

Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 won’t be the first major browser to pack a “do not track” component, but it’ll be the first to have it switched on by default. Though Microsoft doesn’t yet support the feature on its own websites, it plans to help hammer out the protocols by cooperating with industry, government and standards organizations in the months ahead. With Twitter’s support for the measure, the crew in Redmond isn’t the only one kicking the privacy ball forward. The Digital Advertising Alliance, however, isn’t pleased with the development, in no small part because it struck a deal with the White House to honor “do not track” so long as it’s not a default setting. Despite the move, Microsoft said it hopes users will choose to share their data with advertisers to receive more relevant advertising. Hit the more coverage links for added details on Microsoft’s feather ruffling.

After months of chipping away at its lead, Google Chrome has finally overtaken Internet Explorer to become most popular web browser worldwide.

Chrome’s share of the market rose to 32.8% in the week ending May 20, while Internet Explorer’s share of the market dropped to 31.9%, according to new data from StatCounter, via TheNextWeb. This marks the first full week that Chrome has beaten Explorer.

Google’s browser had previously topped Explorer for a single day back in March.

Mozilla’s Firefox is the third most popular browser with just more than a 25% of the market.

Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.